Getting Depth

S

sacredhill

New member
HI:

I own a small studio in Lansing, MI. My final mixes always seem to lack a sense of depth. Anyone worth their SM57's knows a stereo mix is not only left and right, it's front and back! It's hard to add ambience with reverbs because most modern bands don't want any reverb in their mixes.

I am forced due to space constraints to close mic and direct line a lot of instruments. Does this have anything to do with my problem? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

D B G
 
Welcome to the land between better home recording and quality pro recording. This stretch of land is home to alot of studios that almost made it to pro but didnt quite get there. Im still working on my own sound which Im happy with in terms of volume and clarity (mosty) but which Im trying to get more of the sense of space and openess that is native to commercial stuff. Ive made very significant strides by doing a few things. Particularly focusing on getting as much dynamic range as possible.

1. Lowering your noise floor by getting either outboard converters or a card with the converters outside the computer.

1a. Word clock

2. Quality cable.

3. As little outboard processing as possible. You cant afford to lose a couple of dB converting D-A and the back to digital. Once youre in digital leave the processing there.

4. aggressive panning and smart EQ so that everything has its own space and is heard clearly.

5. Dont overcompress if youre mastering yourself. Overcompressing is the enemy to space in a mix. Try to get as loud a signal as possible going in so that theres less need for compression later on.

6. Obviously good mics and pres cannot be overstated here. Do a search on "good mics" and "good pres" and that should be reading material until at least early august. ;)
 
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There's some that can be done with light use of short delays and ambiences, mixed back so there not noticed as seperate effects. Most any of the effects do dilute the impact of raw tracks but room ambiences and a bit of depth or spreading could be a decent compromise.
 
I'm a bit old school in my recording gear and attitudes. I use a Tascam 2524 console, 3 blackface ADATS, and a Fostex D-80. My mic collection is solid but nothing to write home about ( A-T, AKG, Shure, Audix, Groove Tube, RODE, Beyer, etc.). I use Yamaha and Audix monitors, and my outboard gear is basic yet effective(Lexicon, Symetrix, Aphex, BBE, etc.).

My control room is 9'x7'x 6'4", and my live room is 8'x12'x'6'10". My live room is well treated with a combo of bass traps and both absorptive and diffusion panels, but I know my control environment needs some tweeking.

I don't compute, edit, cut, paste or time/pitch correct, I record music.

Thanks for your applicable advice, I will use the suggestions. If you have anymore advice in line with the info I have provided, please contact me again.

Thanks,
D B G
 
Sounds like you have the space, if you can spare a few tracks, try some optional mics back a bit from the drums/guitars ect.
I've had such good luck with an extra condenser out a few feet in front fo the kit (initally for the kick) that I do it as a matter of course as an optional view of the kit. One of my favorite 'happy accidents' was on a softish' vocal done live in the same room as the band. The drums were in the voc mic, and sounded wonderfull mixed with their primary mics.
 
if you work the reverb the right, the band wont be able to tell you used it...when you start hearing the reverb, you used too much.....
 
i agree with gidge. and you also must resist the temptation of using your reverb's presets.;) they might be really close to what you want, but i've rarely heard a preset that is exactly what i need for a particular track. you can do many things to make the reverb more subtle and/or better suited to each track besides reducing the wet signal level- you can eq it in a separate track, you can compress it etc etc.
and you can print it to another track, and automate its volume so you can make it more present in some parts of the song.
and there's nothing in computing, editing, cutting, pasting or time/pitch correcting that is inherently prejudicial to making and recording music nor is it immoral or dishonest. it's all a means to an end. your attitude towards the whole process is what makes the difference.
now i don't do time/pitch correction because it really sucks, but i edit, cut and paste whenever necessary to get the job done, and i'm not ashamed of it.

adriano
 
One little trick to add depth is to pick one instrument to really define the space. This works well with the snare, percussion or an acoustic guitar. This one track of reverb can help give the illusion of the other instruments being in the same space.
 
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